Thursday 5th February
Climbing Adams Peak
To be as close as possible to the path to Adam’s Peak we stayed at the small guesthouse called “The green house”. After we arrived there the day before at about 4 pm, we checked out the surroundings a bit and were quite astonished about the shops around there. It looked a bit like funfair with all the toys and sweets to buy plus warm cloths for the way up. I guess the children of the families are bribed to do the summit with all the toys. To be refreshed for the summit we tried to sleep a bit cause we planned to start at 2 AM, to reach the top at about 5:30 AM in the morning for sunrise.
As the day before was national day and the day before that was Poya Day (full moon) we thought that might be the perfect day, cause most of the locals went up the two days before. We were right with our assumption and the path was not too crowded. It was almost a 50:50 ratio of locals and tourists taking the way up to the top, 2.243 m above sea level.On this journey to the top through the night you can see Sri Lankan people from young to old, single people or big families with about 10 persons. The path is lit quite good and you don’t have to worry about bringing food or drinks with you cause almost every 15minutes you can stop at a tea house.
It took us about 3 hours with about 5 short stops to reach the last tea house before the top. There are a few routes to the top and most common way to take is about 7km long.
The day before we talked to some Australian guys who didn’t take in consideration that it might not be the best idea to go up at a poya day, cause thousands of Sri Lankan people will take the path on this holy date. It turned out that it took them about 10 hours instead of 3-4 hours to reach the top. As the path is very narrow at certain passages, you can just wait until the “traffic” jam dissolves again.
Short before the top the path gets very steep and you have handrails to make it a bit easier to climb the last steps. We were a bit to early so we went back to the last Tea house and rested for a bit.
At about 6:20 the sun came out and it was truly a majestic feeling to see this spectacle.
After about 45 minutes at the top we went down again. And let me tell you something, you will definitely feel it in your legs. Especially the last hour of the trip down is killing your muscles, haha.
At 11:00 am we reached the guesthouse and had a shower and checked out. It would have been an even better idea to stay one more day to relax, but we had already booked our next stay at Nuwara Eliya.
So we took a Tuk Tuk to Beruwela and then the train to Nanu Oya (which is the train station for Nuwara Eliya).
There a driver from King Fern Cottage was already waiting for us. What a service 🙂
The guesthouse is supercool and we totally recommend also the food there, it tastes super good.
Foto Gallery Sri Pada – Adams Peak
